Fylde coast music boss’ gig to fight dog cruelty

A Fylde coast record label boss is organising a concert in Blackpool to promote a campaign opposing a controversial dog-eating festival.

Howard Raucous, 49, of Fleetwood, said he wants to raise awareness of the efforts by the Humane Society International (HSI) to halt the Yulin Meat Festival in China.

The festival has been described by campaigners as barbaric, with complaints that dogs are blow-torched to death, boiled, and then eaten.

The HSI, an American organisation with a base in London, is dedicated to tackling animal cruelty around the world.

Organisers of the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, better known as the Yulin Meat Festival, established in the Chinese province of Guangxi in 2009, insist the dogs are killed humanely and that eating dogs is no different to eating other animals.

But campaigners claim around 1,000 dogs are treated appallingly before being eaten.

Howard, who runs the Fleetwood-based record label Raucous Records, has organised the Rockin’ Against Yulin gig at the Bootleg Social, Topping Street, Blackpool on Saturday, November 3.

He said: “I made the mistake of scrolling down Facebook. Someone had posted a horrific video of animal cruelty and this thing just started playing automatically.

“It was awful and the next day I found out about the Humane Society campaign and decided to try and help.”